Getting Acclimated

Halo!

Things have been shaping up here.  I'm starting to get acclimated to the city and enjoy my time here.  I just bought a bunch of plane tickets yesterday.. haha.  One for the way home!  I leave from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (somehow I'll have to get there) and fly to Cairo, Egypt where I have a 2-3 day layover.  I then fly from there to Madrid where I have a.. 13 day layover :).  Sometime during that time I have to make it to Paris, where I am flying out of to Minneapolis.  I'm very excited! Those flights with those layovers actually ended up being cheaper and on the exact days I was hoping, thanks be to God.  Although, I wish the one out of Paris were a little earlier, so I could make it to L.A. earlier/on time, but there were not many options for that flight and I booked the Paris-Minneapolis leg a week ago before I knew certain details about my schedule.

No Classes for 20 more days!!...
     We had makeshift class this past Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and real classes with the University were supposed to start on Wednesday, Sept. 1st.  They hadn't decided classes would start on Sept. 1st until the week before that (which is why I had to rush here early August- in CASE classes were to start then).  All of us Darmasiswa students arrived at the classroom at 9am and waited outside until 10am when a man from administration showed up and said that the teacher wasn't coming and that classes will actually start after the holidays now, on September 20th.  The biggest holiday break in Indonesia is for Lebaran or Idul Fitri which is September 11th and 12th.  The break usually starts a week before that and ends a week after (similar to our Christmas break time of the year).  Since we had no warning and it's during the holidays, travel/transportation prices are quite high, but it's the only break and only opportunity to travel throughout the semester, so we all really wanted to go somewhere.
     I had many different options of people to travel with and it was very difficult deciding what to do.  Yesterday (after most of my friends had already left for their destinations), I decided that I would go with the family from church (Pipit's) to their village.  Although I could have travelled SE Asia for 20 full days, I felt strongly that I should accept their offer to go to their village with them over Idul Fitri.  We will be there for 5 days - from the 7th to the 12th.  I still have time from then until the 20th, so I got tickets yesterday to go to the Philippines and then stop in Singapore on my way home (I told you I bought a lot of tickets yesterday!!).  It will be my first time travelling alone, which I'm more excited than nervous about.  It will be an adventure :).  Right after I booked these tickets I read a chapter in "Good News About Injustice" that was talking about Manila and about the organizations there.  I'm definitely going to visit them - IJM and S.T.A.R. (look them up if you don't know them!) - while I'm there, and maybe see if there are any S.T.A.R. meetings I could sit in on.  I'm so excited.. I mean sitting in this city for 3.5 weeks now has been really fun and all (hah, I'm partly serious), but I'm definitely ready to see more of the area.

Americans in Bandar Lampung!
You will not believe it - there are some other Americans in this city!  My friend Risti, who is an Indonesian law student at UNILA seems to know every international person in the city and told me one day that there is a family from America who lives here.  On Monday Risti and I went to their house, hung out for the day with them and had dinner.  They are from the South and are Christian.  They've lived in Indonesia for 17 years now.  Their two sons are in college in the US right now, and their daughter, who is 14, is still at home with them.  They started an English program in Bandar Lampung called "Conversation Corner" which University students or professors can come to (Risti is a part of that).  They also have set up clean water programs in 4 of the nearby villages.  It was really nice to speak English with someone, be in a nice home, and eat a different type of food for a change (we had TACOS!!!).  They told me a lot of information about the city that I did not know, which was helpful.
   A girl named Valerie, from Kentucky, joined us for dinner.  She is about my age and has been living in Bandar Lampung for 1.5 years to work as a teacher for their English program.  After dinner, Valerie, Risti, two other girls from Indonesia, and I went to Valerie's house and had a worship/prayer session.  When I had met Risti she told me she did worship with some friends every Monday night.  It peaked my interest when Risti said this to me the day we met, because she is Muslim.  I wondered if she had meant a Christian worship session or not.  Then she started singing some songs for me like, "How great is our God" and "Hosanna", which are Christian (!!) but also in English (??).   Risti was then in the hospital for 2 weeks (everything went well!), so this is the first time we had gone.  When I got there I understood why she knew worship songs in English.  We sang a few in Indonesian as well.  The two other girls from Indonesia are very strong Christians and really awesome people.  I think they and Risti are the 3 best English speakers (from Indonesia) I've met since I've been here.
    I had lunch with Risti the day after that at Pizza Hut (haha, American/different food 2 days in a row! woww).  It was really good and verrry different from Pizza Hut in the states (its actually way better - way more options, healthier, and a lot cheaper! lol).

A few more interesting things about Indonesia:

•  No pandora in indonesia, or anywhere besides the US.. I never knew this!
•  There was a 3 inch cockroach in room.  I saw another huge spider (worse looking - bright colored stripes).  Saw a huge rat in our rumah kos.  There are many large crawly things with lots of legs (like a BIG leech-like thing with lots of legs).. I killed one of them that was in my room a few weeks ago.  The most surprising thing about all of these bugs/animals is that I'm not too surprised anymore.  I don't even tell people about them anymore.. there are like dozens of stories I could tell you, but they don't seem that crazy anymore.  I'm still scared of course! but maybe a little less so.  I'm really scared for the village though (if these are the bugs here, what will they be like in the village?!??!).  
• Someone told me last week that the densest insect population in the world per square mile is in Southern Sumatra.  Great.
• The most common stray animals here are goats and cats.  That sort of surprised me for some reason.  I've learned to herd goats off of the little trails so I can get by when I'm walking to the university! haha. 
• Bed sheet sets do not include a top sheet here.  Blankets are also not used.  I didn't think I'd ever be comfortable sleeping without something over me, but now that it's hot at night, I have no trouble!  
• The temperature between the day and night doesn't change that much.  It makes me realize how much of Wisconsin's summer heat is caused by the sun.  

Btw, did anyone notice that RIGHT after I wrote my last entry saying "I hope no volcanoes explode here", the volcano in N. Sumatra underwent its first eruption?  There's no effect of the eruptions down here, but it sounds pretty bad up there.  It erupted for the 3rd time yesterday, which was the worst one so far.

Aug.21: First time to the Indian Ocean!

I have so many more stories, but this is getting long and I have to go, so I'll end here.  But I visited an orphanage 2 days ago, so I definitely need to write about that!  byebye

Patience, patience, patience

Hi everyone!!!

I've gotten a few requests to explain what exactly I'm doing in Indonesia.  I am doing the Darmasiswa Scholars Program, which is a scholarship program funded by the Indonesian Government.  They fund study of either Bahasa Indonesia, or one of Indonesia's original art forms at a university in Indonesia for 6 months or 1 year.  I am studying Bahasa Indonesia for 6 months at the University of Lampung, which is the biggest university in the province of Lampung, Sumatra's southernmost province.  The University of Lampung is in the city of Bandar Lampung, which is a city of about 1 million people.  It is right across the ocean from Jakarta, only a small straight separates the two.  In between the southern tip of the island Sumatra (where Bandar Lampung is) and the Northwest tip of Java (where Jakarta is) is the famous Krakatou volcano.  So, hopefully it won't erupt while I'm living in Bandar Lampung!  Or any of the other volcanoes for that matter.  

Dinner at Pipit's
On Saturday night (one week ago) I was invited by text message from "Pipit" saying she met me at church, did I remember? to dinner at her house.  I didn't remember.. I had met about 40 people at church the first week, but I of course accepted her invitation and was later picked-up by her husband on a moped.  At their house live Pipit, her 2 younger sisters, her mother, her husband and their baby, and her husband's sister.  Again, the home was very modest, we all sat on the floor while they asked me question after question.  Pipit and her husband are the staff workers for Campus Crusade for Christ on the UNILA (University of Lampung) campus.  CCC has a different name here, but I can't remember it, but they kept saying "CCC" anyhow.  They showed me pictures of when they used to live in Medan (North part of Sumatra) and the ministry they did there.  It was pretty awesome.  It was also amazing that God gave me the language to be able to have that entire time effectively communicating with them and understanding everything that was going on, a miracle!!  It felt like the first time I had been able to talk to people in a few weeks!  And it was definitely God, because since then, I haven't been understanding anything..once again.  They invited me to their desa (village) for Idul Fitri.  I'm not sure how far away it is, but it would be cool to see where their family comes from and see life in a more rural setting.  Plus, they are just wonderful people.

Life here
I don't have much to write about because not much has really happened here.  Classes, they just decided, now start on September 1st, but we're going to have makeshift class every day until then anyways (whatever that means?).  The majority of what has been going on here is basically frustrating stories of trying to get information from the university/program about what is going on, so I'll spare you.  Things move very slow here, which has been quite hard for me.  I remember feeling that way in Spain too, and Indonesia is that times three.  The slow pace has been a blessing in many ways as well.  I've been able to spend more time with God than I've been able to in a long time and it's been really awesome.  He has been growing me in patience more than anything.. it's not very fun though, because I'm very bad at it and it's very hard.  Luckily, God is very good at it and helps and teaches me.  I just started reading "The Good News About Injustice" by Haugen yesterday and I'm already almost half way through the book.. which hasn't happened since Harry Potter.  haha.  Soo.. it's reeeally good, and perfect to be reading while I'm in Indonesia. 
   A couple from Poland arrived about a week ago (some fellow "bule"!).  The guy, Yan, has been in bed the whole week.  The first day here his leg swelled up to twice its size and had huge welts, blood, and disgusting stuff all over it.  Then it started on his other leg a little and then by his eye.  The doctors here don't know what it is, but luckily today he started getting better!  Scary!!  Another Darmasiswa student from Turkey/Germany just got here yesterday.  She's going to be living at the same rumah kos as myself and the couple from Poland.  There is one Darmasiswa student that is still on their way.  He's from Madagascar, and will be here next week.  So that makes 9 Darmasiswa students total, (as well as 9 international students at UNILA total :)).  Hopefully I will find a travel buddy soon!

Good day.

Thank you everyone for reading, your prayers, messages, thoughts, and support!  It has really helped me feel connected and supported in these last few weeks.  I'll talk to you again soon! 

Here are a few photos from my time here so far: 

The first week at church giving a speech to the Church.  Standing next to me is Mas Wawan.

This is the rumah kos where I live.  My room is the furthest right - the furthest right holes in the grey concrete at the end of the building. 

Hello Indonesia!

Hello,

Yes, I decided to start a blog.  If you read it, let me know so I know that I maybe decide to continue writing.  It will be good for memory sake anyhow, I suppose.

The Arrival
So...Indonesia.  I really don't know where to begin.  I arrived in Jakarta after 30 hours of traveling very late on Tuesday night (about a week ago).  There I was met at the airport by 6 other Darmasiswa students (1 Romanian, 3 Russians, and a couple from Hong Kong).  We were all taken to a hotel in Jakarta for the night.  I talked mostly with the Romanian.  We had a nice breakfast.. it was hard to not respond to him in his accent, since I am so used to speaking in Romanian accents (ha, but seriously).. it took a lot of self-control.  Around 10am we were picked up by a huge bus full of Darmasiswa students to go back to the airport to fly to our respective universities/islands.  I waited in the airport with one of the Russians and a Slovakian (whose accent was even harder to not copy!) and we had a good conversation over lunch.  Their flight was before mine, so I waited in the airport/was stared at for about 4 more hours.  I finally arrived in Bandar Lampung on the island of Sumatra around 6pm.  I was picked up by Mas (Mr.) Dedi and taken to a temporary housing place.  No one I met on the trip or once I arrived at my housing spoke English.  The housing was about what I expected - out of my comfort zone, but bearable.  A large snail was in the middle of the walkway when I went out to find someone to help me with a large (or what they call "medium-sized") spider. 

Me and Indonesia
I probably have never been more out of my comfort zone before.  I couldn't NOT fit in more.  I'm stared at/beeped at/shouted at - "bule" (meaning white foreigner) - from about 3 blocks away at all times.  I have not seen one other white person nor met any Westerners here yet - in the city of  Bandar Lampung, that is.  I never thought I'd say this in my life, but I sort of wish I were in a more touristy city.  It is cool that I can see how people live here, but there's no way I can blend in and be part of it, at least not that I can see thus far.  It is too dangerous for me to go places alone after dark, and it gets dark here surprisingly early (6pm).  I also can't go places on this island alone or to villages or any places that aren't very touristy alone.

So much has happened already, I don't know what would be best to say here.  I'll start with some things that surprised me/are different:

• There are lizards everywhere.. approximately 4 in my bedroom at all times.  But they are scared of me, so that's a relief.

• The bathrooms here are... well let's just say everytime I use the bathroom I consider it a victorious success and thank God for helping me through it.  Half because of the bugs and half because of the actual bathroom itself.
• I saw the biggest spider I've EVER seen before in my life 2 nights ago on the wall of my rumah kos (boarding house= where I live w/others.. similar to a shared living-apartment).  The body of the spider was about the size of a baseball.  I was locked out of the rumah kos at the time and it was dark out and my ride had just left.  I was like 6 feet from this spider, I almost cried. 
• There is Muslim prayer 5 times/day.. each time for about an hour.  The first time is at 4am, and it always wakes me up because they do their praying-wailing over loudspeakers so the entire city (and probably the entire region) can hear it.  Since the city is 98% Muslim, you can imagine how many wailing voices are on loudspeakers at pretty much all times throughout the day.

The Church
By Saturday I was starting to get a little worried because I still hadn't met any Christians and I hadn't seen any churches on any of our trips into the center of town.  I continued praying that God would provide a church and a family of believers for the following day.  Later that day, my friend Tayuko from Japan said she was a Frontiers volunteer with a guy who now lives in Bandar Lampung and is a Christian.  I was very excited and asked if I could go to church with him.  She talked with him and said he would pick me up the next morning.
    So Mas Wawan picked me up the next morning and I rode on the back of his moped (thats how you get everywhere.. there are entire families of 4 who ride on one moped together.. impressive).  The church was very small and the people were very inviting. I can't explain how awesome the service was.  I didn't understand the majority of it, but the worship songs were amazing (similar to ours but in Indonesian), and the church was definitely filled with the Spirit.  It felt like I was finally home in this strange country.  During the last worship set, Mas Wawan all of a sudden handed me a microphone and told me I was to give a speech about myself to the congregation.  It was horrible, I couldn't remember any of my bahasa Indonesian...I made it short and sweet, but it was very embarrassing.  After church, Mas Wawan invited me to have lunch at his home.  I ate with him, his wife, his daughter and their niece.  There were about 30 chickens/ducks running around and little lakes everywhere for them.  The house was very humble but nice.  I was the only one who sat on a chair while we ate, and we werent able to eat in the same room.  It was a little difficult talking with them becuase they spoke a mixture of Javanese and Indonesian, but I tried to maintain conversation.

The Bookstore story
    The next day Mas Wawan picked me up on his moped and we went to a Christian bookstore.  When he picked me up he gave me a small devotional in Bahasa so that I could learn to have conversations about God and understand the sermons.  He wrote a nice prayer on the inside cover as well.  The bookstore was very interesting.  I ended up only buying a map of Bandar Lampung.  As I was searching for maps, a young man was sitting in front of one of the shelves, so he moved so I could continue looking.  Then he asked me a question.. I forget what, but his second question was "Are you a Christian?"  and then to Mas Wawan, "And you are, too?"  We said, "Yes."  He said he was too and that he preached the gospel over the Christian radio station of Bandar Lampung.  Mas Wawan seemed to know his voice and they talked for a bit.  I asked how he had known I was a Christian.  He said, "I could tell by your smile.  The face of a child of God shines with His inner beauty."  Hmm... well, that's never happened to me before.  God is awesome, and I'm glad that in this place of few believers, God can be seen through His people.  :)  It's also crazy he even said that... because Christianity is seldom spoken of here, so for him to ask if you are Christian right away like that is a very strange thing to ask.

I'll put a few photos up next time hopefully, the connection is too slow here!
Selamat sore!